ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what action research is and how it relates to the broader field of educational research. While there are numerous similarities between traditional educational research and action research, there is one crucial difference. Action research is educational research; however, it is research that is conducted by educators for themselves. Individuals who are, at least to some degree, removed from the situation and setting that they are investigating often conduct traditional educational research. University professors or graduate research assistants may conduct more traditional forms of research in education, often with an affiliation to a grant-funded project or graduate-level research. There are essentially three categories of traditional educational research: quantitative research, qualitative research, and mixed-methods research. These three approaches to conducting educational research are distinguished based on the nature of the data that are collected and analyzed.
